Congratulations to Grace Dunleavy, Shauna Hyland, Aiya Agustin, Jasmine Rickwood and Charlotte Royston, who are amongst the successful GC student applicants achieving a nationally competitive place on this year’s Telegraph Media Literacy Programme. The virtual programme begins today and will run till 26th March 2024, providing access, insight, training and mentoring with Telegraph journalists from News, Sport, Culture, Travel and many other teams. All students who applied for the programme have also participated in the Greenhead College Journalism enrichment and completed a rotation on the Greenhead College Resident Journalism scheme to enhance their copywriting skills.
Congratulations to all who have applied and secured a place on this scheme.
L-R: Freya Jacks, Grace Ford, Harry Holbrook, Amaani Ali, Anna Robinson, Heidi Butterworth and Finn Boyle
Congratulations to a group of our Celluloid students on their successful applications to the prestigious British Film Institute Academy, a competitive and highly sought after academy for aspiring film makers.
Heidi Butterworth, Freya Jacks, Amaani Ali, Harry Holbrook, Finn Boyle, Anna Robinson and Grace Ford were all successful in gaining places onto the Leeds and Bradford BFI Academy Programmes, allowing them the opportunity to explore a range of different aspects to film making including directing, filming, editing and sound, and to work with industry-standard kit and professional mentors from the industry. The students will also gain an additional qualification equitable to a GCSE and a pass to all films in this year’s Leeds International Film Festival.
A huge well done to all 7 students on this exceptional achievement.
Greenhead College’s Film Club are set to walk the red-carpet having been shortlisted for the ‘National Film Club of the Year’ award at the Into Film Awards.
The club will attend a star-studded ceremony to be hosted by popular actor, author and talent judge, David Walliams on March 18 at ODEON Luxe Leicester Square. The Awards are hosted by film education charity, Into Film, who engage with over half of UK schools.
The Greenhead Celluloid film club is run by Alice Hickman and supported fully by Principal, Simon Lett, who is a film expert and teacher. It operates as part of their college Enrichment programme and involves film discussion, screenings and review writing as well as filmmaking in the Greenhead Celluloid Hub.
The club is inclusive of students from every academic programme, all of whom come together weekly to love film and access the cultural and imaginative potential of the medium. Their students engage in the Into Film programme in a variety of ways.
Head of Film Studies, Elizabeth Bowen said:
“Film is ultimately about people and their worlds. It is vital, exciting and expansive for Greenhead Celluloid film club to be nominated.”
Designed to recognise, showcase and celebrate young people’s involvement in film and education, the Into Film Awards will bring together film industry professionals and young people to shine a spotlight on the achievements of five to 19-year olds from across the UK, as part of a school or youth groups or as individuals.
This year’s films cover an eclectic range of subjects and themes including the impact of plastic usage on our oceans, gender dysphoria, celebrating your heritage, Asperger Syndrome, living without hearing, self-improvement, and many more.
Host for the 2020 Awards, David Walliams said:
“I love the Into Film Awards because it gives the opportunity to young people, from all kinds of backgrounds, to be a part of the film industry.”
A huge congratulations to Liz Bowen, Head of English Combined and Film Studies, who has been awarded a Certificate of Excellence from the 2019 Pearson Teaching Awards.
The Pearson Teaching Awards were established in 1998 to recognise and celebrate excellence in education. “Teachers are the quiet hero’s. We should honour them, for they have in their care the next generation, our whole future”Michael Morpurgo, President, The Teaching Awards Trust.
In her 19 years of teaching at Greenhead College, Lizzie’s passion and enthusiasm has made such a positive impact on her students as well as her colleagues, who have nothing but fantastic words to say about her..
“Without fail, Liz will always say hello to everyone in the class as we walk in and tell us how pleased she is to see us. As the lesson progresses she will tell us how highly she thinks of us and that as long as we continue to push ourselves everybody will get the grades that we are both capable and deserve. In addition, she places the focus on the end result rather than sole essays marked throughout the course; Liz recognises that hard work is needed to achieve one’s best and that every low mark across the way carries lessons to be learnt.”
– A current Greenhead College Student
“If it wasn’t for Liz, I wouldn’t be where I am today. It was Liz who introduced me to the Young Reporter Program which has given me amazing opportunities that will help further my career. Liz would arrange for people from the industry to come in and talk to the class about what we needed to do. She made us aware of every opportunity out there and encouraged try and get as many as we possibly could, helping us along the way.”
– A former Greenhead College student
“She is quite possibly the most generous colleague I have ever worked with – nothing is too much trouble – from making a cup of tea to taking a session to accompanying me to London to celebrate our students’ successes. Her positivity and ‘can-do’ attitude is infectious and her combination of intellectual acumen and intuitive understanding of students’ (and colleagues) needs have provided some of the most rewarding and enjoyable working experiences I’ve ever had.”
– One of Liz’s Colleagues
Liz was awarded her certificate in a presentation at a presentation in College last week by Principal, Simon Lett who commented:
“It’s superb that Liz has received this Certificate of Excellence. It shows how much her hard work is valued and appreciated, and recognises the life-changing impact she has had on young people.”
Three Film studies students, Ella Fitt, Sarah Hargreaves and Ismah Ansari, have all been selected to represent youth from the North of England at the Into Film Youth Council.
Into Film is a national organisation who support educators to achieve a wide range of effective learning outcomes in their use of film.
Ella, Ismah and Sarah’s role within the youth council is to discuss topics and provide suggestions on how to implement a variety of film making opportunities amongst young people. Recent topics they have discussed have been implementing practical film making in primary schools and implementing important topics such as LGBT and Mental Health in film making.
The Youth Council consists of young people aged between 10 and 18 and takes place at Media City, Salford where they meet 4 times per academic year.
The council brings lots of opportunities including practical film making sessions at every meeting. The most recent meeting involved learning animation, which Ella said was brilliant. There are also opportunities to write film reviews and even interview film stars. Ella most recently reviewed Mamma Mia! Here we go again, and Sarah most recently reviewed Skate Kitchen, which they both found highly rewarding.
When Ella, Sarah and Ismah were asked to sum their experience so far up in three words they said:
17 year old Greenhead College student, Ellen Birkinshaw, recently interviewed two of the biggest stars of the latest Pitch Perfect 3 film, comedy actress Rebel Wilson and Hailee Steinfeld.
Spending two days in London, Ellen watched the latest Pitch Perfect instalment, before it became available in cinemas worldwide, and interviewed the two stars. She kept her questions fun and light-hearted, covering a variety of topics including friendship, achieving dreams, stunts and… burritos, whilst interviewing with such confidence and charisma.
The opportunity arose shortly after Ellen was offered one of just 25 places on the two year Young Reporters Programme, with Into Film. Ellen applied for the programme at home, not knowing what would become of it. With a tough application process, her place on the programme was earnt after three rounds of shortlisting, finalising with an audition in London. This assignment was the first of many for Ellen, who aspires to study Film studies at University, and the programme is an excellent platform for her to kick-start her career in Film.
Film Studies teacher Liz Bowen has commented:
‘‘Ellen’s achievement is outstanding. She has demonstrated commitment, talent and confidence to achieve an invaluable industrial opportunity. It is fantastic to see a Greenhead Celluloid student taking their love of film into a real world context.’’
The videos of Ellen interviewing Rebel Wilson and Hailee Steinfeld are available to view on the Get Into Film YouTube Channel.
